Seasons and Compasses
by AllegoriesInMediasRes
Summary: A series of Tumblr fills for various Tudor figures. Includes Princess Mary, Anne Boleyn, Thomas Boleyn, and Katherine of Aragon.
1. Four Seasons meme

**A/N:** A series of Tumblr fills (finally) being posted over here, all prompted by Avani/avani008 on Tumblr.

* * *

Mary I of England, for the Four Seasons meme

 **Spring**

the circumstances of his/her birth | **favorite (or least favorite) family member** | first word | happiest birthday | genderswap au

All good children should revere their lord father above all else save God, especially when he is also their King. But although Mary has always adored her father, it is her mother whom she pays attention to most intently, whose approval she craves the most, whose disappointment would hurt her the worst. Her father proclaims himself pleased to have Mary as his heir in the absence of a son and sends her to Ludlow with all due diligence and glory, but it is her mother who wraps her up in her arms and whispers into her hair that she will one day make a great Queen, who tells her stories of her grandmother Isabella, who swears that she would not exchange her for a thousand sons. It is her mother who imparts in her the faith that will sustain her long after everything else has abandoned Mary.

When her father leaves her mother for good and the world falls out from underneath her feet, it isn't even a question for Mary whose side she'll be taking.

 **Summer**

fantasy | **love language of choice** | a pet or other animal companion| the decoration of their bedroom| fusion au

The maid - Sybil, Mary later learns - averts her eyes when Mary is slapped across the cheek for using her title of Princess and banished to her room like a disobedient wench. Later, when Mary is nursing her wounded pride in her chamber, Sybil comes knocking timidly, seeking to apologize for her cowardice and swearing that she is loyal to and loves the true Princess.

"Are you truly loyal to me?" Mary asks coldly. "Then are you willing to sneak me something from the kitchen when I am not allowed to eat? Carry a letter to Ambassador Chapuys if I believe I may be in danger? Adhere to the Catholic faith even though it might draw the King's anger upon you? Speak up when you see your princess being beaten right in front of you?"

Sybil drops her gaze shamefacedly.

"I thought not. If all you have to offer me are pretty words, then begone. I have heard enough of those in the last year. If for every hundred pretty words someone had said to me, they had followed it up with some deed or action, then I would not be here at Hatfield."

With that, Mary slams the door in Sybil's face. It may be un-princesslike, but Mary has never felt less like a princess at that moment, for what princess can have so many well-wishers yet so few well-doers?

 **Fall**

the one person/cause/ideal they would sacrifice everything for| storms| nightmare | **the lie(s) he/she has told** | hero/villain reversal au

Father might think that Mary had no inkling of the Great Matter until he and her mother finally separated for good in 1533, but he is wrong. She knows, has known ever since the Blackfriars Trial happened when she was still cocooned away in relative safety at Ludlow. At her mother's behest she says nothing, but there are times when Mary wants to grab her father by his lapels and ask him, why, _why_ must he put her lady mother through this torment? What does Nan Bullen have to offer that her mother does not? But that would do none of them any good at all, so Mary learns to swallow the questions and smile. "All queens must learn how to lie," her mother tells her bluntly. "Call it dissembling, call it keeping your cards close to your chest, but if you ever wish to be Queen of England, you will not always be able to tell the truth."

Mary has never had any trouble learning lessons early.

 **Winter**

haunting | tarot | **then and now** | gods and mortals | reincarnation au/historical era swap

"She is my perfect pearl of the world," her father had once bragged about her to a visiting ambassador. He had been carrying her on his shoulders, her Tudor-red hair sweeping down like a curtain. Mary remembers holding on tight as she towered above the whole court. "This is a girl who never cries!"

In the darkness of her chamber at Hatfield, Mary smiles bitterly, tasting the salt of her dried tears on her cracked lips, before dissolving into fresh sobs once more as she clutches her mother's final letter to her chest.

* * *

 **A/N:** Ending notes from the original Tumblr tags:

#mary's love language is acts of services since after the great matter she would feel that words are cheap #she needs to see tangible acts of service to prove your love #the pearl of the world and a girl who never cries were both nicknames henry gave to mary when she was young :(


	2. Compass Rose meme

**A/N** : For Avani and an anon from Tumblr.

* * *

Anne Boleyn & Thomas Boleyn, Compass Rose meme

 **North**

first encounter | (turnabout is) fair play | **fool's gold** | forbidden fruit | the female of the species is more deadly than the male

"Someday, Papa, I will give you a grandson named after you," Anne says one day as they sit in the Queen's chambers.

"Where did this notion come from?" Thomas says sharply. "And if anything, I am sure His Majesty will want the Prince of Wales to be named for himself or his grandfather."

Anne shrugs. "Then perhaps the Duke of York." Her tone is light, but he can see the worry lines already forming on her face, her countenance that is still so young.

"It's a fool errand to be thinking so far into the future, Nan," he says softly. "Elizabeth is strong, and healthy, and you still have time.

"Besides," he says in a more normal tone. "I cannot imagine _why_ you would insist any child of yours have to bear the burden of being one among a hundred at court."

Anne finally laughs, and something in her eyes tells him that he has helped.

 **South**

(cold) comfort | confession | **cloak and dagger** | crocodile tears | charmed life

Thomas does not breathe properly until the door is locked and barred, and they can finally pull out the English bible. He imagines the journey it has taken, across the channel and in trunks and the backs of wool crates, this little tome that contains God's word in a vernacular accessible to all.

Mary is smiling, breathless with the thrill of smuggling something so forbidden into the castle. "I almost feel like a naughty child stealing sweets to take back into the nursery," she says to Anne, expecting her to agree.

"It's not a game, Mary," Anne replies, as she takes the book from her father and thumbs through it. "This is so much more than a game."

She traces the fine illumination bordering a page, and Thomas smiles to see that fire burning in her eyes, the same fire that burns within him, to free England of the shackles of superstition and bring in the new order.

 **East**

stars | songs and stories | **(politics/misery makes for) strange bedfellows** | silver lining | sea change

Thomas Boleyn has attended every christening of a royal child, from this Seymour brat, to young Elizabeth's, going all the way back to the now Lady Mary… how the fortunes change. He is watching those two girls now together, as Mary takes Elizabeth by the hand. It galls him that the girl got away with never acknowledging her as princess, that the Spanish bastard now outranks his granddaughter, in addition to the brat this ceremony is in honor of.

But he supposes, better for them to be in the same boat than one set above the other. Would Anne have seen it that way? Not at all - Anne was never practical like that. Elizabeth - his Elizabeth - is ill and bedridden these days at Hatfield; if she were here, she would counsel Nan that Bess needs every friend she can get, and that to have the Lady Mary on her side is a blessing.

All they can do, Thomas supposes dully, is be grateful that the Lady Mary is more forgiving than any of them would have been in her position.

 **West**

just in time | joined at the hip | jam tomorrow | **juvenile** | journey's end

Thomas Boleyn is (was) the most skilled linguist in the English court and the most able Anglo-French ambassador, yet he must consider this. In every language, there is a word for a he who loses both parents.

Orphan.

A word for he who loses his wife.

Widower.

He who loses his King's favor.

Traitor.

But no word for he who loses a child.

* * *

Anne Boleyn & Katherine of Aragon, compass rose meme.

 **North**

first encounter | (turnabout is) fair play | fool's gold | forbidden fruit | **the female of the species is more deadly than the male**

"You would have your daughter nail herself to the mast of your sinking ship? You would not advise her to bail? Drown yourself if you must, but why must you insist your daughter play the martyr?" Anne snaps.

"Mary is no martyr, Lady Anne," Katherine says with all the dignity of a true queen. "She is a Princess of the Blood, and will be Queen someday, no matter how many bastards you present His Majesty with."

Anne does not rise to the insult, for once. She merely shakes her head. "You know the King well, I am sure. You know how he treats those who do not obey him."

"I know what God wills for me, and what my destiny is, Lady Anne. You will understand me, one day, when you have a daughter. You will understand when you hold your little girl in your arms, and know that she deserves so much more."

 **South**

 **(cold) comfort** | confession | cloak and dagger | crocodile tears | charmed life

(India!AU)

It is not that Katyayani resents her husband's new concubine Ananya and her presence in the palace. For all Katyayani loves her only surviving child Miriam, she knows she failed to give the King a son, and he is within his rights to take a younger wife in the hopes of giving the kingdom the stability of a male successor.

But for him to claim that Katyayani was never his wife at all, that Miriam was born out of wedlock, to take away their titles of Rani and Rajkumari - that Katyayani cannot and will never forgive. Especially when Ananya has only produced a daughter, Elavarasi, so far - a healthy daughter, but only a girl - and there is no need to add insult to injury.

He even insists that Miriam work as a made: Miriam, the _moti_ of his world, whom he used to carry on his shoulders.

Which is why Katyayani is quietly, pathetically grateful to Ananya for teaching Elavarasi to call Miriam _didi_. The fewer people who call Miriam _dasi_ , the better.

 **East**

stars | songs and stories | (politics/misery makes for) strange bedfellows | silver lining | **sea change**

Set in mihrsuri's Such a Time As This (Jewish!Anne Boleyn AU)

Katherine does not know what power this new woman has that convinces Henry to allow her to see Mary. To hold such influence that he closes monasteries even before she gives him a son?

(She knows. She remembers the sway she held over him in those early days, when they were still Harry and Catalina to each other, and to know another woman holds him in such sway is the bitterest gall.)

But still. She is also an Infanta of Spain and can be gracious when she needs to be. And for Mary's sake. There is nothing and nobody she would not serve for Mary's sake. So she smiles when Lady (Queen) Anne gives birth to (twin) sons, and is surprised to find that her congratulations are somewhat genuine.

And then Queen Anne reveals she is a Jew and Cardinal Wolsey is arrested and the Jews of England come crawling out of the ghettos like cockroaches out of a waxwork and Katherine's entire world is shaken and burned to ash all at once.

A Jew. Not even a heretic, but a Jew. The Jews that her mother stamped out with the Inquisition and sent into exile where they belong. Katherine owes her life to a woman who comes from a people that poisons wells and mixes the blood of babies into their matzoh.

Katherine had thought she was used to being thrown about on the waves of fate, but the latest shore she has crashed on may be the most confusing yet to navigate.

 **West**

just in time | joined at the hip | jam tomorrow | juvenile | **journey's end**

They both spent seven years waiting for their crowns.

They both presented their king with one daughter and a slew of dead boys.

They both die with the words, "To God I commend my soul" on their lips.

* * *

 **A/N** : Ending A/N in the form of Tumblr tags (because I'm lazy):

#thomas boleyn was actually present at mary's and edward's baptisms #elizabeth howard boleyn died six months later #thomas boleyn died less than a year after her #he was also the best linguist at henry's court #also idk if there truly is no word for parent who loses child in other languages #blame it on thomas being in throes of grief

#moti means pearl because henry called mary the pearl of his world #dasi means maid #and didi means elder sister #i remember reading somewhere once that their last words were the same, but in different languages #au heavy because these ladies deserved much better


End file.
